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<title>The Space Between Us by xhookswenchx (ReluctantPrincess)</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26737333">The Space Between Us</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReluctantPrincess/pseuds/xhookswenchx'>xhookswenchx (ReluctantPrincess)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Once Upon a Time (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 10:22:40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,839</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26737333</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReluctantPrincess/pseuds/xhookswenchx</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>AU based on the Netflix film “The Space Between Us”.</p><p>Born on Mars, Emma Blanchard has never left the red planet. Orphaned as an infant, she’s a government secret. Secrecy and the fact that her body would never survive in Earth’s atmosphere has kept her fairly isolated on Mars. </p><p>But she wants to know who she is, who her mother was, and maybe even find her father. A chance encounter on social media might just give her the spark she needs to push her caretakers to figure out a way to help her survive a visit to a planet she’s only seen in pictures.</p><p>Thank you to @teamhook for starting the @captainswanmoviemarathon !</p><p>I’d also like to thank my beta @snowbellewells for putting up with my tardiness!</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Captain Hook | Killian Jones/Emma Swan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Captain Swan Movie Marathon</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Space Between Us</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I've made a few changes and won't be 100% following the movie exactly, but the main idea and plot was inspired by and taken from The Space Between Us.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>
    
  </b>
</p><p>
  <b>Chapter 1</b>
</p><p>Genesis was David Nolan’s brainchild. </p><p>As a child, he dreamed of exploring the universe. As an adult, he learned a medical condition prevented him from ever leaving Earth. </p><p>Genesis was his solution. He’d spent years working with some of the top scientists in the field. Now, they had a green light from NASA, and their first mission to Mars was under way.</p><p>He would be behind the scenes, of course. Despite his eagerness, NASA wasn’t willing to take the risk of sending him into space. So, he chose instead to live vicariously through the astronauts chosen to be the first colonists on Mars.</p><p>They were led by a skilled Commander: Mary Margaret Blanchard. As beautiful as she was brilliant, she’d signed on for the two-year mission. </p><p>“Blah, blah, blah,” Emma groaned as she fast forwarded through the speech she’d seen more times that she could count. She had every word David Nolan recited memorized. She’d stopped caring about the speech a long time ago. All she cared about was the brief moment the camera zoomed in on the astronauts.</p><p>She paused and zoomed in on the dark haired Mission Commander. Petite, adorable, and apparently, one of the finest astronauts NASA had to offer.</p><p>“Hey mom,” Emma said sadly. </p><p>It was the only way she could see the woman who had brought her into the world. Memories from nearly twenty years ago, just pictures on a screen. In a way, it helped her feel close to the mother she’d never met.</p><p>Mary Margaret Blanchard. Mission Commander.</p><p>She’d only just made it to Mars when she went into labor and gave birth to Emma.</p><p>Then she’d died moments later.</p><p>The circumstances of her birth had left Emma an orphan on a distant planet. Her space travel in-utero had made it impossible to ever leave Mars for Earth. According to various scientists and medical personnel, her body would never be able to handle the Earth’s atmosphere.</p><p>Even if the situation wasn’t so dire to her health, there was also the fact that no one outside of a few people on earth even knew she existed.</p><p>She lost her mother, and she would never know her father. </p><p>She didn’t even know who her father <em> was. </em> No one did. </p><p>It was her mother’s best kept secret. Sometimes Emma wondered if her mother even knew. After years scouring archival footage, Emma only found dead end after dead end. The only real clue of her mother’s life before her was a simple ring. </p><p>The scientists had given it to Emma when she was twelve. No one knew what the plain band meant, because as far as they knew, Mary Margaret had no husband. Archie Hopper, the lead scientist, and main caretaker of Emma thought it was an heirloom of sorts, but there was no way to truly find the answer. Mary Margaret was the last of her family.</p><p>Or rather, Emma was the last.</p><p>Still, it was something of her mother’s, and so Emma kept it close to her heart on a chain around her neck.</p><p>Sighing, she turned off the video and booted up her laptop. She grinned when she noticed her one and only contact off Mars was online. Killian Jones. A mechanic from a place called Storybrooke. </p><p><em> UglyDuckling: </em>Hey Hook.</p><p><em> CaptainHook: </em>Swan. To what do I owe the pleasure?</p><p>Emma laughed and rolled her eyes. </p><p><em> UglyDuckling: </em>You’re always so formal. We’ve been friends for awhile now. I think you can drop the gentleman act.</p><p><em> CaptainHook: </em>I’m always a gentleman.</p><p>They’d met on a social media site that Emma definitely wasn’t supposed to be on. Archie was pretty strict when it came to keeping her existence a secret.</p><p>Government liabilities and all that.</p><p>Still, she found a way to the blogging site, and started a conversation with someone who seemed to understand her in a way no one else could.</p><p>Their comments turned into messages, and then, Emma found herself wanting to meet the man who had captured her heart.</p><p>It was really too bad she’d been lying to him about everything.</p><p><em> CaptainHook: </em>I’ve been thinking. New York isn’t far from where I’m at. I know travel isn’t possible for you, but I could come out there and see you.</p><p><em> UglyDuckling: </em>I’m pretty sure you’d be bored. I’m a lot more interesting online than I am in real life.</p><p>Only, it wasn’t just that. She’d told him she had a rare disease that gave her brittle bones and a weak immune system. She had been grateful at the time that he hadn’t questioned it. And when it came to seeing one another, video chat filled that role just fine.</p><p>But he wanted to meet her just as much as she wanted to meet him. Being a government secret, she couldn’t just say “Hey, we can’t meet because I live on Mars.” For all Killian knew, she lived in New York and couldn’t leave her home.</p><p>She never really thought he’d be willing to travel to see her.</p><p><em> CaptainHook: </em>If you don’t want to meet me, you can just say so.</p><p><em> UglyDuckling: </em>Be patient.</p><p><em> CaptainHook: </em> I’ve got all the time in the world.</p><p>“Blanchard!” The tinny voice echoed out of the speaker. “You were supposed to be in the greenhouse fifteen minutes ago!”</p><p>“Shit!” Emma bid Killian a quick goodbye, and rushed out of her room. When she found Dr. Hopper waiting for her in the greenhouse, she hung her head. “Sorry, Archie.”</p><p>“It’s fine,” he said, calm and understanding as ever. Sometimes, Emma wondered how such a mild mannered man made it in such a cutthroat industry. People were fighting tooth and nail to sign onto Genesis, and Archie beat them all out for that coveted spot on her mom’s team.</p><p>He was like a father to her, though she wasn’t about to ever tell him that. Unlike the other scientists who shuttled back and forth between Mars and earth, Archie was one of five -including herself- that stayed on permanently.</p><p>The difference was, they all had a choice. She didn’t.</p><p>As they got to work, Archie cleared his throat. </p><p>
  <em> That was never a good sign. </em>
</p><p>“You know I don’t mind a little rule breaking here and there,” he said. “But when it comes to restricted areas, they’re blocked for a reason.”</p><p>Emma groaned. Breaking and entering was one of her talents, but it seemed that everyone knew where she was at all moments of the day. It was easy to get into restricted areas, but impossible to avoid the inevitable capture.</p><p>“They’re just archives,” Emma mumbled, knowing that it wasn’t the excuse Archie wanted to hear. “Besides, I was raised by scientists. Did you really think a little bit of shoddy security would keep me out of restricted areas?” Hell, she’d helped upgrade most of the systems just last year. If they didn’t expect her to know how to hack her own design, then they weren’t as smart as the fancy degrees they held claimed they were.</p><p>Archie didn’t say anything else on the matter. Instead, he somewhat awkwardly tried to steer the conversation to the project they were working on.</p><p>“Where is my mother?” Emma asked, not really caring at all about the plants, or the oxygen, or anything else that pertained to colonizing the planet. </p><p>“Emma-”</p><p>“Don’t Emma me!” she snapped, earning her the attention of everyone else in the greenhouse. She could see them in her peripheral vision trying not to stare, but curious to the commotion. <em> Great. </em></p><p>“I just want to know where my mom is,” she said. She knew there was a grave site that she had yet to visit, but she wasn’t sure that’s where her mother <em> was. </em>And if she was there, why hadn’t anyone taken Emma to see her? Why the secrecy? </p><p>“We’ll discuss it later,” Archie stated, dismissing the conversation entirely. </p><p>Frustrated, Emma went back to work, as did everyone else who had been eavesdropping. When she finished, she muttered a goodbye and went off to her room. When Archie didn’t follow, she knew she had at least a few minutes to put her plan into action.</p><p>“If he won’t tell me,” she grumbled to herself, “I’ll just go find her myself.”</p><p>She’d been working on a way to bypass the extra tight security on the garage. Only once had she been able to access the vehicles inside. Archie however, had chaperoned, and they only traveled a short distance. It was freedom, but not enough.</p><p>Emma could remember seeing the original landing site in the distance. She spied the first shelter that had long since been abandoned. </p><p>Mars had changed in the almost twenty years since humans first arrived. It was nowhere near ready for civilians, but the colony had grown exponentially over the years. </p><p>She remembered asking Archie if they could see the old site. She was five when the permanent site was finished, and could hardly remember the days when she would run around the small encampment, giving Archie -and any other scientist unlucky enough to be responsible for her- a good workout.</p><p>They hadn’t gone to the old site then, and she hadn’t been allowed to go out since. Sometimes, Archie could be too overprotective, and if he believed something was dangerous…</p><p>Emma rolled her eyes. She appreciated the fact that he’d given up a lot to be her caretaker, but she was an adult now. There was a part of her that could understand why they’d be overly cautious with her, why they’d put so many rules in place. She was an anomaly. Someone who wasn’t supposed to exist. A government secret who could never leave the red planet. </p><p>But another part of her wanted all the things she saw in the movies she watched. She never truly got to be a kid; Never had a true teenage rebellion. Now she was an adult, and yet she felt as though she’d never really lived. She may have been an anomaly, but she was still human.</p><p>The computer dinged and the badge she’d coded popped out of the slot. </p><p>“Hello teenage rebellion,” she said with a smile. </p><p>She stepped out of her room and into the hall. Once she was certain everything was clear, she snuck down the corridors and towards the garage entrance. It wasn’t generally crowded, something she was grateful for. When she found it empty now, she grinned. </p><p>
  <em> No one to question her. </em>
</p><p>Quickly, she grabbed a suit and donned it. When she was sure everything was air tight, and the oxygen was running, she swiped her badge across the panel, relieved when the doors slid open.</p><p>Archie would come soon. The systems would alert the entire colony to her unauthorized escape, so she didn’t have much time. </p><p>She hurried to one of the unoccupied rovers and started it up. It was rough, as she’d never been in the driver’s seat before, but she found the controls were easy enough. </p><p>“Okay,” she said to herself as she sped out of the garage. “Now to find Mom.”</p><p> </p>
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